Cheers, i'm very very new here, probably the newest one there is at the moment. I just wanna start off by asking, to avoid any flaming (as i've experienced on one of the bigger digital video forums) :
is it OK here to discuss things related to the mp3-scene, and does that ever happen?
If not, got any pointers?

peace.

Please define or specify "MP3 Scene" ... if you are planning on discussing about illegal filesharing, I'd avise you to take a look at Hydrogenaudio's Terms Of Services (TOS) first ...

If you are planning to discuss quality-related stuff, TOS#8 will be your favourite one ...

Edit:

TOS here ... and welcome to HA.org ...

That depends on how you define 'the mp3-scene'
If you mean trading illegal copies of copyrighted music, you could read the Hydrogen Audio Terms of Service rule #9.

[edit: about the same as JeanLuc's post]

Thanks.
Although i do have some questions that arent really related to the spread, or production of pirated music, i think i'll refrain from them. After all, the scene is all about pirated music. I did check through the TOS, didnt read those before i signed up here though. I read a much shorter form of rules then, which only stated you shouldnt talk about pirating music. Or something like that.

My question is in the line of "is it true that the scene standard now is VBR, and, if the bitrate is variable, why is there also a quality setting in the LAME encoder" ... i believe some people will be offended by the "scene" word.

cheers!

I do not think that a question of that degree would get you into trouble with TOS#9 ... but you should refer to the MP3 forum (recommended encoder and settings thread) to clear up anything about VBR/CBR/ABR and probable settings ...

Replace "scene standard" with "recommended settings".
The 'MP3 scene' finally started using the --alt-presets, which had been recommended at HA.org since late 2001, in early 2004.

Unfortunately I've still noticed a lot of these "MP3 Scene" people still using what they were using before - 192k CBR simple stereo. Though I guess some coming around 3 years late is better than never.

LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard is now the scene-standard, as far as i know - and at the same time the recommended setting on ha.org since years. I'd say its not unprobable that the scene did some research here. Also, the presets basically were originally developed at ha.org (and in the latest LAME releases have now replaced the VBR-settings...... so, for example with newer lame versions, "V2" and "--preset standard" is now the same.

For more info, take a look at the recommended settings-thread and the FAQ (its very possible that you may find some facts in the FAQ which you didn't know yet).

- Lyx